Now, to the scary close call in the skies over new york city. The jumbo jet and the commuter plane from two different airports, getting too close as one was taking off and the other was landing. David kerley joins us in washington with the latest on all this. Good morning, david. Reporter: Robin, obviously, this is not supposed to happen. Two planes getting far too close together. It was a jumbo jet, a boeing 747. 172,avy. Are you turning? Yes, sir, we're almost at 040 now. Reporter: Delta 172 is lining up to land at jfk airport. But the 747 pilot decides not to land, to circle around, and try again. But at the same time, a small, delta commuter jet is taking off from nearby la guardia airport. And the two aircraft get too close. We're almost at 545 now. Delta 172, heavy traffic, 12:00, 1,400 feet. Reporter: The two aircraft, headed straight to each other. What the faa calls losing separation. Others call it, a near miss. Anytime we have two airports that allegedly come within 100 feet of each other, it's not just a violation. It's serious. Do you have the la guardia departure in sight? Never saw him. Reporter: The faa does say the planes were turning away from each other when they got too close. We got a systemic failure, obviously, in the system, which is so well-designed breaks down and we have somebody getting close to somebody else. Reporter: This happened last friday afternoon. And between 2009 and 2010, there was a 50% increase in these kind of operational errors, which the faa calls them. The faa says part of that is due to better reporting. Of course, these close calls remain a concern.

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